Huion Q11K Pen Tablet
Huion’s Inspiroy range offers some perfectly serviceable budgetlevel tablets, with the Huion Q11K sitting just above its cheapest, mostly due to its wireless capabilities – which needless to say is the Q11K’S headline feature, apart from its generous size.
We tried it out using a few different art programs, namely Affinity Photo, Krita, and Medibang Paint Pro, which all responded well. Here are our notes after spending a few days using the Huion Q11K.
GETTING SET UP
Huion’s tablets are always a treat to unbox, and the Q11K is no different. Inside is the tablet itself, and three other boxes containing a micro USB to USB-C to charge the tablet, a charger for the pen, and a number of elements that make up the pen holder.
The pen holder, once put together, also houses the spare nibs, nib changer and the wireless USB connector, which all screws together with a nicely weighted bottom, so your pen can sit upright or on its side on your desk.
A quick-start guide also points you towards where to download your driver for installation, which as a process is as simple as can be, and you are directed throughout. Huion really has perfected its onboarding process, which means if you’re new to drawing tablets this is a good one to start with.
DRAWING SURFACE
The Huion Q11K is quite generous in size for the price range. 11 x 7” is more than you’d get for Wacom in this price bracket for certain. As a surface to draw on it has an ever-so-slight texture to it to mimic paper, but not so much that it inhibits graceful pen movement. The size means you can be a little more expressive in general, allowing you room to move about.
THE STYLUS PEN
Though the majority of pens/ styluses are battery free nowadays, there are still one or two that need a charge. It took about an hour to fully charge, though it can be used whilst plugged in. The stylus that comes with the Huion Q11K is relatively lightweight, made fully of plastic, and has two customisable buttons on its shaft – though there is no rubber grip.
It’s not a bad stylus to work with, the pressure sensitivity levels are 8,192 (up there with the best – though I can’t tell the difference between those levels and a stylus with half the amount), and it does not have tilt function (look to the Q11K V2 for that).
The pen works well and is nice to draw with, and is very sensitive so a greater range
“WE TRIED IT OUT USING A FEW DIFFERENT ART PROGRAMS, WHICH ALL RESPONDED WELL”
in marking is available. For the budget, this is a decent stylus and the extra nibs that come with the package are a welcome addition that not all tablets offer.
DESIGN AND BUILD
The Huion Q11K is a nicely put together tablet, with all the bits and extras you need.
Design wise, the Huion Q11K looks good and has a stylish appearance. It sits nicely on the desk especially when in wireless mode, there being less wires and clutter. There are eight customisable shortcut buttons, which are easy to program in the software UI so you can tailor the buttons to the app you’re working with. For instance, you might have different shortcut needs for Krita than you do for the likes of Affinity Designer or Photoshop.
Also within the Huion UI is the ability to change the tablet around if you are left-handed, so the shortcut buttons are on the right. Of course, whether you use them or not is down to personal choice. Some people are just so used to using keyboard shortcuts that they stick with that. Good to have the option, though!
In terms of the build quality it’s what you’d expect for the price. It is mostly plastic, with four rubber feet underneath to stop it slipping about, but overall it feels very solid, and well made.
Once it’s charged (the tablet itself took just over two hours to fully charge) you do get a lot of use out of it. I’ve been using it for three days, about three to four hours at a time, and it still hasn’t needed another charge yet.
PRICE
Currently priced at £64/$84 (usually $119), there is also a V2 (which sports a 60-degree tilt function) available priced at $139. For comparison, Xp-pen’s similarly sized graphics tablet the Deco LW, which is also wireless, costs £90/$90. A small Wacom Intuos is currently £90/$70 (usually $100), which is Bluetooth capable and the pen is battery free (which the Q11K isn’t), but has around half the levels of pressure sensitivity as the Huion.
SHOULD YOU BUY ONE?
There’s no real reason not to consider buying a Huion Q11K if you’re looking for a firsttime buy or a slight upgrade from something smaller. The wireless aspect is very handy, as it is less cluttered (but it does need charging first), the drawing experience is great and the pen is very sensitive and also customisable to your own hand.
The only downsides I found in use when creating my art and illustrations are that the pen isn’t battery free nor does it have the tilt function. However, the size of the drawing area is also worth the price and means more drawing ‘real estate’ to use. Overall, for the price and quality the Huion Q11K is a good buy if you’re new to tablets.